1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the technical area of apparatus and methods for generating neutrons for cancer therapy.
2. Description of Related Art
Thermal neutrons have been used for cancer therapy for the destruction of cancer tumors. These neutrons interact with boron-10 that has been placed at the cancer site. The neutrons interact with the boron to produce fission events whereby alpha particles and lithium nuclei are created. These massive ionized particles are then released, destroying the chemical bonds of nearby cancer tumor cells. At present the neutrons created in a reactor or accelerator pass through a moderator, which shapes the neutron energy spectrum suitable for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) treatment. While passing through the moderator and then the tissue of the patient, the neutrons are slowed by collisions and become low energy thermal neutrons. The thermal neutrons undergo reactions with the boron-10 nuclei, forming compound nuclei (excited boron-11), which then promptly disintegrate to lithium-7 and an alpha particle. Both the alpha particle and the lithium ion produce closely spaced ionizations in the immediate vicinity of the reaction, with a range of approximately 5-9 micrometers, or roughly the thickness of one cell diameter. The release of this energy destroys surrounding cancer cells. This technique is advantageous since the radiation damage occurs over a short range and thus normal tissues can be spared.
Gadolinium can also be considered as capture agent in neutron capture therapy (NCT) because of its very high neutron capture cross section. A number of gadolinium compounds have been used routinely as contrast agents for imaging brain tumors. The tumors have absorbed a large fraction of the gadolinium, making gadolinium an excellent capture agent for NCT.
The following definitions of neutron energy ranges, E, are used frequently by those skilled in the art of producing and using neutrons for medical, commercial and scientific applications: Fast (E>1 MeV), Epithermal (0.5 eV<E<1 Mev) and Thermal (E<0.5 eV) neutrons.
BNCT has the potential to treat previously untreatable cancers such as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). In the US brain tumors are the second most frequent cause of cancer-related deaths for males under 29 and females under 20. GBM is nearly always fatal and has no known effective treatment. There are approximately 13,000 deaths per year due to primary brain tumors.
If conventional medicine is used where the glioblast is excised, new tumors almost invariably recur, frequently far from the original tumor site. Effective radiation therapy, therefore, must encompass a large volume and the radiation must be uniformly distributed. Conventional radiation treatment is usually too toxic to be of use against GBM.
For distributed tumors, effective radiation therapy must encompass a larger volume and the radiation must be uniformly distributed. This is also true of liver cancers. The liver is the most common target of metastases from many primary tumors. Primary and metastatic liver cancers are usually fatal, especially after resection of multiple individual tumors. The response rate for nonresectable hepatocellular carcinoma to traditional radiation treatment or chemotherapy is also very poor. However, recent results indicate that the thermal neutron irradiation of the whole liver with a 10B compound could be a way to destroy all the liver metastases.
Recent research in BNCT has shown that neutron capture therapy can be used to treat a large number of different cancers. BNCT has been found to be effective and safe in the treatment of inoperable, locally advanced head and neck carcinomas that recur at sites that were previously irradiated with traditional gamma radiation. Thus BNCT could be considered for a wider range of cancers. BNCT holds such promise because the dose to the cancer site can be greatly enhanced over that produced by y-radiation sources. This is a consequence of the fact that the neutron-boron reaction produces the emission of short-range (5-9 um distance) radiation, and consequently normal tissues can be spared. In addition boron can achieve a high tumor-to-brain concentration ratio, as much as ten or more, thereby preferentially destroying abnormal tissue.
BNCT has been tested using either nuclear reactors or accelerators, which are not practical or affordable for most clinical settings. Reactors also do not produce an ideal neutron spectrum and are contaminated with γ-radiation.
Fusion generators produce fast neutrons from the deuterium-deuterium (DD) or the deuterium-tritium (DT) reactions and are, in general, smaller and less expensive than accelerators and reactors. These fast neutrons must be moderated or slowed down to thermal or epithermal neutron energies using, for example, water or other hydrogen bearing materials.
The fusion neutron generator has three basic components: the ion source, the electron shield and the acceleration structure with a target. The ions are accelerated from the ion source to a titanium target using a high voltage potential of between 40 kV to 200 kV, which can be easily delivered by a modern high voltage power supply. An electron shield is usually disposed between the ion source and the titanium target. This shield is voltage biased to repel electrons being generated when the positive D+ ions strike the titanium target. This prevents these electrons from striking the ion source and damaging it due to electron heating.
The target uses a deuterium D+ or tritium T+ absorbing material such as titanium, which readily absorbs the D+ or T+ ions, forming a titanium hydride. Succeeding D+ or T+ ions strike these embedded ions and fuse, resulting in DD, DT or TT reactions and releasing fast neutrons.
Prior attempts at proposing fusion generators required the use of the DT reaction with the need for radioactive tritium and high acceleration powers. High yields of fast neutrons/sec were needed to achieve enough thermal neutrons for therapy in a reasonable length of time of therapy treatments. These prior schemes for achieving epithermal neutron fluxes are serial or planar in design: a single fast neutron generator is followed by a moderator, which is followed by the patient. Unfortunately, since the neutrons are entering from one side of the head, the planar neutron irradiation system leads to a high surface or skin dosage and a decreasing neutron dose deeper into the brain. The brain is not irradiated uniformly and cancer sites have lower thermal neutron dosage the further they are from the planar port.
A conventional planar neutron irradiation system 14 and its operation is shown in FIG. 1 labeled Prior Art. Conversion of fast neutrons 22 to thermal neutrons 30 takes place in a series of steps. First the fast neutrons 22 are produced by a cylindrical fast neutron generator 20 and then enter a moderating means 18 where they suffer elastic scatterings (collisions with nuclei of the moderating material's atoms). This lowers the fast neutrons to epithermal neutron 24 energies. A mixture of epithermal 24 and thermal neutrons 30 are emitted out of a planar port 16 and then enter the patient's head 26. The epithermal neutrons 24 are moderated still further in the patient's brain and moderated further to thermal neutrons, finally being captured by the boron at the tumor site. The fission reaction occurs and alpha and Li-7 ions are released, destroying the tumor cells.
The epithermal and thermal neutrons reach the patient's head through a planar port 16 formed from neutron absorbing materials that form a collimating means 28. The thermal and epithermal neutrons strike the patient's head on one side, and many neutrons escape or are not used. One escaping neutron 38 is shown. This is an inefficient process requiring a large amount of fast neutrons to be produced in order to produce enough thermal neutrons for reasonable therapy or treatment times (e.g. 30 min).
To achieve higher yields of fast neutrons the planar neutron irradiation system 14 requires that one use either the DD fusion reaction with extremely high acceleration powers (e.g. 0.5 to 1.5 Megawatts) or the DT reaction which has an approximate 100 fold increase in neutron yield for the same acceleration power.
The use of tritium has a whole host of safety and maintenance problems. Tritium gas is radioactive and extremely difficult to eliminate once it gets on to a surface. In the art of producing fast neutrons this requires that the generator be sealed and have a means for achieving a vacuum that is completely sealed. The generator head can not be easily maintained and usually its lifetime is limited to less than 2000 hours. This reduces the possible use of this generator for clinical operation since the number of patients who could be treated would be small before the generator head would need replacement.
On the other hand, the use of the DD fusion reaction allows one skilled in the art to use an actively-pumped-vacuum means with roughing and turbo pumps. The generator can then be opened for repairs and its lifetime extended. This makes the DD fusion reaction neutron generator optimum for clinical use. The downside for the DD fusion reaction is that high acceleration powers are required to achieve the desired neutron yield required by prior art methods. Improving the efficiency of producing the right thermal neutron flux at the cancer site is imperative for achieving BNCT in a clinical and hospital setting.